Tonight the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. An overtime goal against the Philadelphia Flyers captured game 6 and sealed the series win. In doing so, they ended the longest Stanley Cup drought in the NHL and capped a marvelous season. The young, explosive, and versatile team earned their victory. While I am a die-hard Philadelphia Flyers fan, but I can say the Blackhawks’ victory was well-deserved. And for the Flyers, there’s always next year.
rpt says:
Victory for the Chicago Way.
June 10, 2010, 12:07 amJasonF says:
I’m watching Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews dancing in the locker room, singing the opening bars to Chelsea Dagger, and it is great! After the Olympics, I remarked to some friends that I would forgive Toews if he brought us home the Stanley Cup. Well, all is forgiven!
June 10, 2010, 12:08 amCareless says:
In the last week we’ve had a perfect game lost by one of the many incompetent umpires in MLB and a Stanley Cup winning overtime goal scored that few people recognized. Yeah, I like instant replay.
Great season, Hawks!
June 10, 2010, 12:14 amValentino Rossi says:
From the Chicago Tribune, 1961: Coach Rudy Pilous resorted to a common motivator between periods: money.
“I just told them that tonight’s game was worth $1,000 to the winner and the loser gets nothing,” Pilous said, according to the Tribune.”
June 10, 2010, 1:17 amSteve says:
The Hawks nearly lost the pivotal Game 5 of their first-round series against Nashville, only to tie the game on a short-handed goal with 13 seconds left and win in overtime. While last-second miracles do happen, most people didn’t even notice history being made: this was the first time in the history of the NHL that a team scored a short-handed goal to tie a playoff game with less than a minute left. (It’s hard, cause um, you have to pull the goalie just to be even – and how do you pull the goalie with the other team controlling the puck on a power play?)
Without this amazing choke by the Predators – who knows?
June 10, 2010, 1:57 amBT says:
To paraphrase the late Andy The Clown, Go You Black Hawks!!!!!
June 10, 2010, 2:01 ampaul s says:
JFK was President last time the Hawks won the Cup.
Now it’s the Toronto Maple Leafs who have gone the longest without winning the Cup having last won it in 1967.
Congratulations Hawks.
June 10, 2010, 2:39 amBC says:
What frosts my shorts about this is that it rewards the revolting Blackhawks fanbase, which is perhaps the worst collection of frontrunning Good Time Charlies in the entire league. As recently as three years ago this team didn’t merely struggle to sell out their arena; they struggled to so much as halfway sell out their arena. And now suddenly Chicago has always loved the Hawks, and the United Center, the “Madhouse on Madison” is some kind of latter-day Joe Louis Arena. Spare me.
“Oh, but BC, you don’t understand. Dollar Bill Wirtz drove the team into a ditch for the better part of two decades and alienated all us fans. But now that Rocky has taken over and put a competitive team on the ice again, all is forgiven!” Tell it to Leafs fans, who despite their team being mired in a stretch of Cup futility and managerial incompetence nearly as epic as what Hawks fans suffered through, still manage to set attendance records and have a season ticket waiting list a couple thousand names long.
June 10, 2010, 3:26 amMaryG says:
BC–
Chicago fans are lucky. Lots and lots o’ nightlife choice, other pro sports teams included. Everybody likes a winner, and winners they are.
Besides, do you know how much they charge for a ticket to watch a losing team? People waited to pay until the product got better, and yes, when you win, you draw a more diverse audience.
How many Chicago boys are looking to lace up now?
June 10, 2010, 6:37 amSteven Lubet says:
Fans should stay home when the product stinks. Otherwise, management has little incentive to improve. It’s called “the market,” and it often works.
June 10, 2010, 7:02 amBT says:
BC, the next time you are in Chicago, dinner is on me.
Go Black Hawks!!!!
June 10, 2010, 7:10 amPenguins Fan says:
Here come the Hawks! :D
Whichever team won or lost, its captain would have won gold for Canada at the Olympics and hoisted the Stanley Cup in the same year. I’m glad it was Jonathan Toews and not Mike Richards. (With apologies to our host.)
June 10, 2010, 7:52 amSteve says:
And now suddenly Chicago has always loved the Hawks, and the United Center, the “Madhouse on Madison” is some kind of latter-day Joe Louis Arena. Spare me.
To be fair, I think the Hawks had a better crowd back before they had their organ removed. (I refer, of course, to the organ at Chicago Stadium, where the crowd was typically rabid even in the bad days.)
June 10, 2010, 9:01 amMark M says:
Jesus, sounded like a war zone out on the west side last night.
And THEN people started setting off firecrackers when the Hawks won!
June 10, 2010, 9:19 amGuest Again says:
Ahh, yes. The organ, the cloud of cigar smoke, the beer, the noise. The old Chicago Stadium. The game was the thing back then. Now the game is just part of the event that is an evening in professional sports. Is it better now? or then? Or were things always better in the ‘old days?’
Congratulations to the Hawks and to Marian Hossa in particular. A well earned championship.
June 10, 2010, 9:22 amresh says:
Fine. Hull and Mikita can finally rest. But this also means the Leon Stickle offside(s) call goes back on the mantel.
June 10, 2010, 9:51 amDonP. says:
What was the old saying about the crowds at the Stadium, many fresh from martinis and cardiac impacting steaks at Gene & Georgettis?
“The ground floor seats were three piece suits, the next level up wore sport coats, the third level wore T-shorts and the top level, in the corners, wore loin cloths.”
June 10, 2010, 11:00 amPKSully says:
BC-
June 10, 2010, 11:00 amYour argument sounds similar to the one us Sox fans hear from Cubs fans whenever the Sox stink and we stop going. I’m proud that Sox fans, and Hawks fans to a lesser extent, are discerning enough to not buy an inferior product. If your favorite restaurant starts serving crappy meals, do you keep going because, after all, it’s your favorite restaurant? Fans staying away when the team stinks incentivizes owners to keep the team competitive. As evidence, White Sox vs Cubs for last 20 yrs, or whenever the northsiders became the lovable Cubbies. The Cubs spend plenty on payroll but don’t produce winners because they don’t really have to win to keep the fans coming.
richard says:
Great victory for the Hawks. But there isn’t going to be a great next year for the Flyers unless they get better goaltending. Next year, watch for a Western Conference Finals between the Hawks and the other great young team in the league, the Kings. With the best defenseman in the league, Daughty, and what should be a great goalie tandem of Bernier and Quick, this is going to be THE team of the next five years
June 10, 2010, 12:00 pmRandy Handbag says:
Congrats to the Blackhawks! Enjoy your party in the Windy City! I am a huge Pens fan but I will take the high road and congratulate the Flyers on a great season. C You at the game opener in our new area!
June 10, 2010, 12:06 pmSteve says:
I did not realize that BOTH the Hawks and the Flyers had lost 5 consecutive Finals appearances prior to this year. Now the Flyers have lost 6 in a row, which ties the all-time record.
June 10, 2010, 12:17 pmTJ says:
In the old Stadium it was crucial not to take a lower-level seat that was exposed to the cigar-chomping beer-spillers in the upper levels!
June 10, 2010, 1:00 pmBrian G. says:
If I were a disinterested observer, I’s day that was a great series for a hockey fan to watch. As a lifelong Flyers fan, it sucked to see them lose.
Congratulations to the Blackhawks.
June 10, 2010, 1:17 pmBC says:
How did it incentivize the Hawks’ owners? Oh, wait — it didn’t. Bill Wirtz would be running the franchise into a ditch even now if he were still alive. The Hawks didn’t stop sucking because of financial pressures on ownership created by fans staying away; they stopped sucking because Wirtz died and the new owner, his son, wasn’t a total pinhead about managing the asset like his old man.
So this line about how Hawks fans were actually demonstrating their loyalty and sophistication by staying away is just so much garbage. You weren’t being “discerning”. You were being fair-weather fans, good-time Charlies who shamelessly climbed aboard the bandwagon.
June 10, 2010, 1:48 pmJoseph Slater says:
This Red Wings fan says congrats to Chicago, condolences (but still a good season) to Philly, and wait ’til next year.
June 10, 2010, 3:04 pmSteve says:
As a Red Wings fan myself, I can say that I enjoyed the team’s success that much more because I persisted in staunchly rooting for the team through all the bad times. Of course I was just a kid then and didn’t realize it was my market-based duty to be a bandwagon jumper.
June 10, 2010, 3:37 pmM. Gross says:
…and the winning goal was scored by our boy Patrick Kane.
Maybe now that he’s won the Stanley Cup he won’t have to punch cabbies over $0.20.
June 10, 2010, 3:51 pmVisitor Again says:
Once my Canadiens were eliminated, I cheered for the Blackhawks. Congratulations to all of that team’s fans. I remember well the last time you won in 1961, ending my team’s five straight Stanley Cups. At the time, we all thought the Black Hawks, as they were then known, would go on to win a few times in the 1960s, but it was not to be. May the Flyers’ nonwinning streak extend another few decades.
June 10, 2010, 5:40 pmJoseph Slater says:
I’m with you, Steve. Although compared to other Detroit teams (and for that matter, most other teams period), the Red Wings haven’t had quite as many bad times.
June 10, 2010, 5:53 pmras says:
Steve,
I watched that game, and as Nashville got its PP set up in the Hawks’ end, I said out loud “no shots, you guys, just play keep-away, you know that.” A shot could lead to a rebound leading to a rush the other way and Nashville already had perfect control of the puck and couldda run out the clock, no probs.
But sure enough….
Anyway, congrats to the Hawks and to Chicago. Well done.
June 10, 2010, 5:58 pmPJens says:
It was great hockey. I watched as many playoff games as I could. In my opinion, much better than soccer.
June 10, 2010, 10:06 pmChrisTS says:
Here in Philly, some of us are secretly glad about the loss: everything is quiet. :-)
June 11, 2010, 12:35 am